With a somewhat hazy vision, the scenery he is seeing was dark and grim.
It was a gloomy scenery filled with death.
Corpses of humans and otherworldly creatures of varying sizes. Mountains of such corpses are everywhere. And the accumulated blood from them had formed many lakes of red mixed with decay and poison giving birth to clouds of their color.
At the center, at the top of the largest corpse as big as a mountain overlooking such hell... He was kneeling.
Holding the corpse of a woman with golden hair, tears are on his eyes as he was looking in the sky.
As his tears became as cold as the person he was holding, unexplainable sadness overwhelms his very being.
He then held the corpse on his arms tight on his embrace and gave a roar at the sky.
A heart-wrenching cry...
As his cry echoed in the surroundings, he felt that a part of him was lost, his heart mourning.
After giving the roar at the sky, the sadness he felt then slowly disappeared… now replacing the feeling was an overwhelming thirst for blood that he couldn't explain.
He roared one more time.
This time it was not a cry for mourning, but a roar pledging for someone's execution…
...
Ray woke from his bed and felt irritated by the sticky feeling that the sweat on his body was giving him.
It was another one of those vivid dreams.
5 years ago, he suddenly started having these dreams. Of being in a battlefield of a sort in a mysterious place, with him having a life or death battles with blurry monsters or people, or even sometimes witnessing some kind of impactful event.
There are even scenes of him leading people, and scenes of him spending time with different women.
Though everything would become hazy after he woke up. The only clear images are some of the people's faces for some reason.
At first, he was not minding these dreams and thought it was just a product of his chaotic and perverted imagination, but after a while of receiving them, these dreams began affecting even his life.
This part of the vivid dream he had today particularly was one of the most noteworthy of the ones he was having.
After having this part, he was left with a lasting thirst for blood so uncontrollable, the first time he had this, he even started becoming destructive, subconsciously crushing a glass he was holding with his bare hands when he ate his breakfast at that time.
The dreams were changing him which made him even have the thought of wanting to go to a psychiatrist to be examined.
And the fact that such dreams contained many scenes of death doesn't help. With him feeling the owner of the vision's genuine feelings during such events, it was like it really did in fact happen to him and was just now remembering it.
Before he began having these dreams, he was a somewhat normal person living alone independently.
His parents died from a car accident when he was young and ever since then, he had lived with his grandmother on his mother's side. And after his grandmother died when he was fifteen, he then began living alone.
If people would describe to him what he was before he had these dreams, then they would probably describe him as an honest young man.
Outside, he used to visit his parents grave every month, and sometimes even help his neighbors with various things. At school, he was a model student who was almost perfect besides having a girlfriend. And at home, he would study, play games, and watch various movies anyone would like just like a normal teenager.
But now...
To other people, he became like a completely different person.
Because of the life and death battles, he had witnessed and even felt on the vivid dreams, he had grown a lasting thirst into building his strength. It was due to the reason that the Dream him in such events would then feel a great craving for stronger power, for the cruel near-death moments made the dream him feel so weak and useless.
Intense regret and anger, the Dream him in the latest parts of his dreams would always feel these emotions and would always question himself, why was he so weak.
The dream had given Ray a lot of thinking, and he had taken the tragic Dream him as his own teacher.
That's why most of his free time is now spent in cultivating his body's strength. It might not be the strength the dream him was looking for, but he thought it was at least a good start.
He got used to going to a gym and training every day, and after realizing it wasn't enough to satisfy his urges, he even bought things for training at home using a part of his inheritance.
After a while, he had also realized that the vivid dreams have other surprises to give him.
In his first year receiving the vivid dreams, there was that one time when he was late going home because of training, and he got mugged by a group of thugs.
If it was the him before, then he would be scared on his toes and would probably give all of his money and his phone away, then pray to God that they will let him go unharmed.
But when he got mugged, instead of feeling scared when one of the thugs took his knife, his body instead moved on its own and gave a fast punch like a bullet straight into the thug's face that sent the thug rolling away with a broken nose.
Then afterward, before he knew it, all of the thugs were unconscious on the ground.
He was unharmed, and he realized why... it seems that his body somewhat engrained the memories of his fights from the dreams.
He still had never done any martial arts and was still currently doing only strength training at that time. That event was also the reason why after that time, he then went beyond just strength training.
His body was changing, but he didn't feel bad for these changes and welcomed it.
5 years later and it was now the present time.
From receiving the dreams when he was 17 years old about 5 years ago, he was now a 22 years old young man working as a salaryman with office work.
He had long stopped playing games at home and watching movies. He stopped socializing with his friends. And he had lessened going outside the house, besides job and utilities.
He even just settled for a relatively peaceful job with a just-right amount of salary instead of a high paying one.
Because of his changes, many people were disillusioned of him. And with him suddenly becoming cold, his friends even left him.
Some even hated him...
But he didn't care. He just wants peace and silence in his life.
He will just continue to work until he will be safe for retirement.
Then he could just spend his time satisfying his urges through training at his home.
One would argue that something is wrong with him.
But he knew for sure that that is wrong. To him, what he had just experienced was just another form of enlightenment, he just realized that many things in life aren't particularly worth it to waste time for.
...
After doing some light exercises, Ray took a shower and then ate his breakfast.
Right now, as he was sitting in front of the empty plate, his thought then once again moves back to his dream today.
It was one of the dreams which appeared the most, and it was one of which gave him a lasting impression.
He doesn't know if other people have these kinds of dreams and what they would've felt about it.
Some would probably be scared but for some particular reason, he doesn't mind these changes at all, in fact in some cases, it could even be said that he started to want more of these dreams.
He felt some real connection to him on the dream.
The only bad thing about it was that It just felt really incomplete for some reason. And he wanted to know every missing part.
He didn't really care whatever it was, he just wanted to know.
What is it about? Is it his past life? an alternate world? who is that woman?
What was the full story?
It was somewhat annoying, if Ray were to give an analogy, then it was like he was forced to read a novel, but instead of reading it like how you normally do, it was like someone ripped off a few random pages on it and then made him read it. It was not just missing a good number of pages; it was not even in the right sequence.
If it was another time, he would never really think about it much, but today is different.
He has been feeling really tense right now for some reason, with his heart beating a little bit faster than usual.
*Thump… *Thump… *Thump…
A mysterious feeling.
Something is coming…
It was like his body is telling him.
He always had this feeling since the day he had the vivid dreams.
And since it has been five years, he had long grown accustomed to having this sort of premonition that something is coming. And he stopped caring about it before long ago. But, since the start of this month, this feeling has grown stronger, and today...
The feeling of premonition is the strongest it had ever been.
He knew for sure, that it is today, something will happen today.
As he was thinking so, he suddenly felt the ground shake a little.
"An earthquake..." he murmured as he then looked at the vibration happening in a glass of water in confirmation.
As he was sitting calmly, the earthquake suddenly started to become stronger, so he stood up and was about to go outside.
But as he did so, a white flash suddenly attacked Ray's vision making him closed his eyes on reflex.
...
'What is this?'
Ray's eyes were a little bit hurt due to the sudden flash.
He rubbed his closed eyes and put his focus on his ears.
He could hear noises in his surroundings.
There were voices of several people.
"What?!" "Fuck! what the hell man"
"What is happening?!" "Shit!"
"Shit, are the police raiding?!!!"
It was weird cause he was supposed to be in his house alone.
As the sting in his eyes slowly goes away, he opened his eyes and then examined his surroundings.
The first thing that he noticed was the bunch of people around him, probably about a hundred.
There were a lot of varieties; men, women, teenagers, aunties, and uncles.
And then next is the place... he was supposed to be in his house, but this place isn't it.
Some kind of grassland from who knows where...
A feeling of nostalgia…
'Strange'
He knew for sure that it's his first time being here but for some reason, he had the vague feeling that it was giving a nostalgic vibe.
As he was looking around, the people around him then started to also take notice of the situation as they began accessing the surroundings.
"What the Fuck!?" "Man, what are you all doing at my place!?"
"Shit, what kind of trick is this?!" "Could someone explain what's going on?"
"Where's my house?!" "You, what are you looking at?!" "Huh?! Wanna fight?!"
As the surroundings were starting to get lively, a light suddenly appeared in the front which they were facing when they were summoned.
As they were attracted by the light, it then slowly dimmed as a teenage-looking girl with angel wings then appeared with a shout.
"Tadaa! no worries!" said the angel with a lovely voice. She then slowly took a pose, and then continued...
"Cause, I am here!" With a lovely smile, a light appeared on her back just like a comedic special effect you could see in movies.
As Ray carefully examined the angel's face, he found it familiar for some reason.
...